Featured photos

Canada got the last hurrah at the Celebration of Light Saturday evening, closing the three-night event with a winning display. Canada was declared the winner of the event, with Brazil and China finishing second and third, respectively.

Poodle installation delights, confuses on Main Street

A statue of a poodle sits high above the street in front of 3333 Main Street in Vancouver.

Photograph by: Arlen Redekop
, Vancouver Sun

Not everybody living and working along Main Street understands how a seven-foot aluminum-cast poodle might represent the character of their neighbourhood.

But Mary Frances Hill totally gets it.

Hill, a writer who lives in Mount Pleasant, was delighted when she first spotted the public art installation sitting atop a 25-foot steel pole in a new city park under development at the corner of Main and 18th Ave.

It was unexpected and weird, even a little grotesque in its size and scope. Yet, somehow, she immediately felt the piece had managed to capture the essence of the community.

“What I love about it is that on Main Street nothing is out of place. The out-of-place is in place. You are supposed to be surprised,” she said.

The untitled work, informally called “Poodle,” is the creation of Montreal artist, and part-time Gulf Island resident, Gisele Amantea.

Unveiled last month, Poodle cost an estimated $62,000 and is the centrepiece in a larger project by Amantea in response to her own experience travelling by bus along Main Street and the people who live along the transit route.

A series of temporary works by the artist can also be seen on and inside three articulated buses servicing the #3 bus route, including Memento — Pink, which entirely wraps a bus in the image of a knit cozy of a pink poodle. A second piece, Memento — Envy, depicts a group of poodle cozies looking with longing and jealousy at a porcelain poodle figurine — “suggesting the class and cultural differences that historically have marked Main Street,” according to an overview of the project distributed by the City of Vancouver.

Inside a third bus, Memento – Multo is a set of 22 cards that show examples of the “modest but culturally and aesthetically interesting objects” that can be found in shops along Main Street, the overview states.

Bryan Newson, Vancouver’s public art program manager, said Amantea’s work has been widely embraced by those who have seen it.

“People I think see that it’s entirely appropriate for Main Street with all those very interesting shops which sell used goods, which sell antiques, which sell funky stuff. People think it comes right out of the material culture that is just so evident right up and down Main Street,” he said.

He called Amantea, whose 2005 installation, Red Horizontal, can be seen in Yaletown’s David Lam Park, “a very significant artist.”

Her art contributes to the city’s reputation in North America as “a place where people can come to have a very broad and diverse experience of art,” he said.

The Poodle has its critics. Some people question the cost of the project, which totalled $97,600 and was paid for by the federal government, TransLink and City of Vancouver. Others are confused about the meaning of the work and its relevance to Main Street and its residents.

Nigel Prince, executive director of Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery, said public art inevitably stirs up controversy because it invites everyone’s opinion and interpretation.

“It is such a big debate — the value of art and the meaning of art,” he said.

He maintains public art is an important part of the fabric of the city. In many cases, public art celebrates important figures and events. Other pieces are designed to be more provocative.

“They can cause us maybe to reflect on, or view things in a slightly different way than we have done in the past. It is a positive thing, I think, if there is something that prompts one to be more expansive and more open in one’s views and opinions and thoughts,” Prince said.

Hill’s own take on The Poodle is a mixture of awe and sadness. She sees the perfectly coiffed canine as a reminder of how much impact humans have had on other animals on the planet, how we’ve tried to control their behaviours and damaged their habitats.

“The domestic dog, you know, we are always the masters and commanders, and he is on the leash. Now he is on the big podium, lording over us, and, you know, ‘F--- you.’

“That is why I love art so much. It is supposed to make you a little tiny bit uncomfortable, but you really love it because it is so beautiful,” she said.

Heather Baker of A Baker’s Dozen Antiques on Main Street said poodles were an extremely popular breed of dog across various cultures in the mid-1950s and ‘60s and believes Amantea was referencing that mid-modern art movement in her work.

Baker said that works well for Main Street, which is rich in antique shops and stores selling quirky items that hearken back to older eras.

Amantea was one of three artists selected to participate in a public art program on Main Street called 88 Blocks — Art on Main. The first project for 88 Blocks was A Bright Future by Instant Coffee. Another installation project by artist Germaine Koh is expected to be unveiled on Main Street later this year.

Vancouver has approximately 300 pieces of public art on display around the city.

According to a database compiled by The Sun in 2009 from municipal dog license data, poodles are the tenth most popular breed in Metro Vancouver. Charlie is the most popular name for poodles, followed by Max, Teddy, Coco and Molly.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.